Futurismo Biologists TeamOctober, is the month of transition to winter, with clear changes in the surrounding nature, summer days and cool evenings. We already woke up on the 18th with snow on top of Pico mountain while the first days of the month were still really hot and humid!
This year, the season 2022 in Pico island ended on the 15th, allowing us to go at sea the two first weeks of the month and still having great encounters with cetaceans!
In total we observed 9 different species, which still included the sei whales, dropping to the 2nd place in the frequency of sightings of the month, letting the Atlantic spotted dolphins rising to the 1st position. We were so lucky to be able to observe sei whales all summer long and until our last trip of the season!
Then, they are followed by two species of resident dolphins with equal percentage of sightings, the bottlenose dolphins and the common dolphins.
On the last place of the top five, we find sperm whales, with a score under 50 % of sightings per day at sea. They remain behind in the rankings as was the case during this season.
The Risso’s dolphins were seen twice, with the same group of males that we can easily recognize by the lack of dorsal fin of one member of the pod.
The species observed only once in October were the striped dolphin always in a rush, the false killer whales who suddenly showed up in the area while we were searching for baleen whales, and also a Minke whale who surfaced at the side of the boat before to disappear for the depths.
During our last trip, we enjoyed a huge pod of Atlantic spotted dolphins (more than 300 individuals), like they were starting to aggregate just before to leave for their winter quarters, before returning next year on higher latitudes around some oceanic islands, such as the Azores.
Last year we had exactly the same kind of sight for our last seasonal trip, an amazing way to say «goodbye, and see you next year!»
Futurismo Biologists Team
Sandrina Rodrigues
